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You may have seen several news reports of very severe lung disease and deaths from use of e-cigarettes. We know almost all of the ingredients in e-cigarettes can harm the lungs. The flavoring chemicals can cause coughing, wheezing and sometimes severe lung damage. The vehicle (propylene glycol and glycerin) can damage lung cells and cause a type of pneumonia called lipoid pneumonia. The battery can blow up causing burns, facial injury, broken jaws and eye injury. Even the inhaled nicotine can be harmful.
There is no evidence that e-...
Photo: Kaylee at Texas Children's Hospital Cancer and Hematology Center
When Kaylee Tolleson first complained of lower abdominal pain, Kelly and John Tolleson, Kaylee’s parents, did what any parent would, took her to an urgent care. To their surprise, when they got there, Kaylee was already feeling better, so the urgent care checked her and diagnosed her with severe constipation.
“Still, Kaylee would come down in the mornings complaining of pain in her lower abdomen, then, after 20-30 min, she would be feeling OK, ready to go to school or continue her day,” Kelly recalled.
This happened every so often. Kelly would...
Photo credit: Smiley Pool
In 1996, I was on a return flight home following a week touring hospitals, clinics and orphanages in Romania. What I had seen on that trip shocked me. Children with HIV/AIDS were dying in droves at a time when new antiretroviral drugs were revolutionizing treatment of the disease in the Western world.
I spent a lot of time thinking through how to address this discrepancy in care and survival. It was on that flight home – scribbling ideas down on a legal pad – that the concept of what would later become the Baylor...
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If your child is undergoing a surgical procedure, there can be a lot of stress and uncertainty surrounding the process. Your level of worry may even increase if your child then develops a fever after the surgical procedure. Although there are many causes of postoperative fever, below are four common questions parents have about postoperative fever.
What is technically considered a fever?
Fever is defined as a temperature greater than 100.4oF. After undergoing any surgical procedure, developing a fever during the...
Photo: Texas Children's Hospital cancer research LAB
As patients, we expect our doctors to keep abreast of the latest medical knowledge so they can provide the best care for our condition – whether it is for something as innocuous as an annual checkup or something more serious like a life-threatening or chronic condition.
Modern medicine is constantly evolving. What was once considered the standard-of-care a few years back may not be recommended any longer, only to be replaced by a better, more effective drug or a surgical procedure. Perhaps there are even patients suffering from an illness or disease for which there were...